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The issue which this conference wishes to address is the grammatical, pragmatic and semantic status of less prominent states of affairs in discourse and complex sentence structure and more in particular the interaction between grammatical properties of subordination, speech act properties and clausal information structure.

Illocutionary force, information structure and subordination between discourse and grammar

Since Matthiessen & Thompson (1988), it has been widely assumed that discourse structure and complex sentence structure have much in common and that the latter is a more grammaticalised way of representing relationships between states of affairs than the former. Both structures consist of a network of relationships between what we could call, avoiding too strong a terminological bias, more and less prominent states of affairs (background/foreground; nucleus/satellite; salient/non-salient; etc.). The issue which this conference wishes to address is the grammatical, pragmatic and semantic status of less prominent states of affairs in discourse and complex sentence structure and more in particular the interaction between grammatical properties of subordination, speech act properties and clausal information structure. In complex sentence structure, less prominent states of affairs are expressed in subordinate clauses, which are widely, but not unanimously, assumed to lack both speech act properties and information structure (cf. Lambrecht 1994; Cristofaro 2003). There are, however, some notable exceptions, viz. clauses which seem to have the grammatical properties of subordinate clauses, but are prominent in the sense that they provide the core of information of the sentence as a whole (Biber 1988). On the other hand, less prominent states of affairs operating as independent clauses in discourse structure, are not usually thought of as being deprived of speech act properties or information structure. It remains to be seen whether this is a tenable position.

Conference papers are expected to address one or more of the following questions or another topic within the realm of the conference theme: - Is discourse structure best analysed as binary (salient/non-salient; foreground/background) or as a continuum and what are the criteria? - Is it feasible to describe the relationship between discourse structure and complex sentence structure as iconic? - Is it either necessary or feasible to distinguish between different types of less prominent information (Brandt 1996) such as subsidiary information (Nebeninformation) vs. background information (Hintergrundinformation)? Do we perhaps need to distinguish more types than these? - What is the exact distribution of illocutionary force in discourse? Are less prominent but independent states of affairs endowed with illocutionary force? - What is the role of discourse particles and connective devices in the organisation of the discourse in more and less prominent states of affairs? - Is clausal information structure a property specific to independent clauses? - Should information structure be viewed as a single partition of information within a given utterance? According to some authors, complex sentence structures have only one information structure partition (cf. Mathesius 1975, Komagata 2003), whereas others assume that certain complex sentence types have more than one (Brandt 1996). - If clausal information structure is absent from subordinate clauses, why do syntactic manifestations of information structure (dislocation, clefting) sometimes appear in subordinate clauses? - How can the interaction between clausal information structure and discourse information structure (cf. the difference between clausal topic and discourse topic) be described in a more comprehensive way? - Is there historical evidence of the ''loss'' of speech act properties or information structure? Can this be linked to a diachronic development from independent to dependent clauses, and if so, is it indeed feasible to describe this process as grammaticalisation (cf. Fischer 2007)?

Comparative papers focussing on European languages are particularly welcome and will be favoured during the review process.

Anonymous abstracts should be max. 2 pages long and be sent as a Word (.rtf) file to:

bart.defrancqhogent.be

before 1 November 2007. Abstract and paper should be in English or French. Information about the author(s) should be given in the e-mail the abstract is attached to.

Multidisciplinary Approaches to Discourse 2008 (MAD 08) is the seventh in a series of small-scale, high-quality workshops that have been organised (approx.) every second year since 1995. Its aim is to bring together researchers from different linguistic disciplines to exchange information and learn from each other on a common topic of investigation. The theme of MAD 08 is 'Linearisation and Segmentation in Discourse'.

Call for Papers (3rd call - extended deadline: October 26)

Language as well as other forms of communication are inseparably tied to some kind of linear-sequential form of presentation, due to the linear-sequential nature of the media on which they operate. Linearisation in its turn presupposes segmentation, i.e. decisions concerning the size and type of units to be brought into a sequential order at various levels. In written and spoken language, for example, it has to be decided whether a piece of information can and should be realised as a word, a phrase, a clause, a (complex) sentence or even as a sentence sequence or paragraph. And the relevant units have to be arranged in a certain order that is determined - in part, at least - by the rules of grammar but also - at higher levels of discourse - by other principles. We are interested in identifying and defining such principles. What principles govern the segmentation of the information to be (explicitly) conveyed? What do the minimal discourse units look like, which kinds of complex structure do they build and how are these structures separated from each other?

The aim of this workshop is to bring together researchers from different linguistic disciplines (e.g., psycholinguistics, contrastive linguistics/translation studies, computational linguistics, discourse studies), and, if possible, also from other disciplines in which the linearisation and segmentation of 'content' or information is constitutive (e.g., in music or film). We invite contributions on topics and questions such as the following (the list may be extended):

- Discourse units and segmentation:

Which are the (minimal) units of discourse, and how are they marked and separated from each other? For example, which role does punctuation play in written discourse, and pauses and intonation in spoken language?

- Linearisation and its relation to nonlinear linguistic and conceptual structures:

The workshop and lodging will be at Lysebu, a conference center in the middle of one of Oslo's major skiing areas (for cross-country as well as down-hill) which is accessible by public transport.

Attendance

Following the tradition of the earlier workshops, the total number of participants will be limited to (approx.) 30 persons. Speakers of accepted papers are automatically granted a place; the remaining ones are assigned on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Abstract Submission

We invite extended abstracts in PDF, RTF or Word format. Papers must not be longer than ten pages (including figures and references), using 12 pt font, 1.5 line spacing, with 2.5 cm margins on all sides. Please include your name, affiliation and e-mail address at the top of the page, directly below the title. All abstracts will be reviewed by members of the program committee. For final versions of accepted papers, precise formatting instructions (for Word) will be issued.

With previous workshops in the series, selected papers have later been published in special issues of journals or as an edited volume in a relevant series (e.g., for the 2005 workshop: M. Grabski et al. (eds.) ''Salience. Multidisciplinary perspectives on its function in discourse'', to appear in the Mouton-de Gruyter series 'Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs' [TiLSM]). We are planning on following this approach for MAD 08 as well.